Sony Xperia line could be getting optical image stabilisation

There's been a flood of news coming out of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which means it can be all too easy to miss some of the smaller revelations. Case in point: optical image stabilisation for the cameras in Sony's Xperia range.

The revelation comes courtesy of a demo video from ON Semiconductor taken in Barcelona. During the demonstration, Solutions Development Manager Arthur Gonsky says his company's OIS technolgy is available in a number of handsets, including Sony Xperia phones.

There's no Optical Image Stabilisation in the Xperia Z3 - so does that mean we can expect it to feature in the upcoming Xperia Z4? Let's hope so, because camera shake can really ruin a great shot.

Shake it up

OIS, for the uninitiated, uses hardware components to counteract camera shake. Digital image stabilisation, on the other hand, uses some software trickery to reduce blur and isn't quite as good.

For example, the iPhone 6 uses DIS whereas the iPhone 6 Plus uses OIS. It's a very useful feature to have on your phone, but it can push the price up, which is why most manufacturers decide to leave it out of the equation.

We won't know for certain until the Xperia Z4 is actually in our hands and after it was a no-show at MWC there's no guarantee of when that will be. Keep your eyes on the camera specs when it finally does see the light of day.